Delhi registers 1,396 Covid cases with 31.9 TPR; highest in 15 months

New Delhi: Delhi registered 1,396 Covid-19 cases on Saturday, and the test positivity rate reached 31.9 per cent. This is the highest in 15 months in Delhi, data shared by the city administration's health department suggested, reports PTI.

It was on January 14 last year, the city recorded 30.6 per cent.

With the new cases, Delhi's Covid-19 tally climbed to 20,21,593. Five fresh fatalities pushed the death count to 26,560, the health department bulletin stated.

With the new additions, the cumulative Covid-19 count reached 20,21,593, and the day registered five more deaths taking the cumulative death count to 26,560.

At 1,149 cases, the national capital's daily tally crossed 1,000 for the first time in more than seven months on Wednesday, with a positivity rate of 23.8 per cent. One fatality was recorded, but the health department said coronavirus was not the primary cause of death.

Delhi recorded 1,964 cases on August 18 last year.

The number of Covid-19 cases dropped to zero on January 16 for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic. However, the city has witnessed a spurt in cases over the last fortnight.

The health department bulletin on Saturday said 267 of 7,951 beds in Delhi's dedicated Covid-19 hospitals are occupied, while 2,977 patients are in home isolation.

The number of active cases currently stands at 4,631, it said.

Mock drills were conducted at Delhi hospitals on Tuesday to ascertain their preparedness to tackle Covid-19.

Medical experts have said Omicron sub-variant XBB.1.16 could be driving the surge in cases in the city.

However, they maintained that there is no need to panic and people should follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and get their booster shots.

Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Thursday that XBB.1.16 is not leading to severe infection among children.

Meanwhile, India recorded 10,753 new Covid-19 cases, a slight dip from the day before, in 24 hours as of Saturday 8 am. The active caseload stood at 53,720, which is 0.12 per cent of the total infections. The total death count out of the virus in the country reached 5,31,091 after adding 27 more casualties.

Apart from deaths in Delhi, Maharashtra reported four deaths, Rajasthan three, one each in Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. When the Daily positivity rate of the nation stood at 6.78, the weekly stood at 4.49. Also, the national Covid-19 recovery was recorded at 98.69.